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are old enough to die for this country, you
are old enough to vote." I would just say
this, and I am not going to take that par-
ticular line of reasoning, but if you are
old enough to accept the responsibility of
military obligation and to discharge this
responsibility in an honorable way as so
many have at this age, I think that this is
an indication of a willingness to accept re-
sponsibilities of other kinds.
THE CHAIRMAN: Your time has
expired.
DELEGATE SCHLOEDER: Thank you.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Rybczynski.
DELEGATE RYBCZYNSKI: I allot two
minutes to Delegate Gilchrist.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Gilchrist.
DELEGATE GILCHRIST: Ladies and
gentlemen, one of the most interesting ex-
periences which I had as a candidate for
the Constitutional Convention was that of
attending a meeting in the town of Frost-
burg in Allegany County.
I was invited to a meeting which was
sponsored by the Women's Democratic Club
of Frostburg, which took place in the
Knights of Columbus Hall in Frostburg.
I explained that I felt a bit out of place,
being present in the Knights of Columbus
Hall, a Republican in a Democratic Club,
and a man in a woman's organization.
(Lauyhter.)
I found that one of the significant fac-
tors in that group was the presence of a
very considerable number of young people
from Frostburg State College. All of us
who appeared at that meeting- were called
on to say something or another.
And when I got up I was subjected to a
barrage of questions about the possibility
of lowering the voting age. One of the
other candidates, surprisingly perhaps, was
the head of the political science department
at Frostburg State College. She had obvi-
ously trained her students well. They knew
something about what was to take place
here in Annapolis, and they were prepared
with questions.
I got a big kick out of answering or par-
rying the questions which were thrown to
me by those young people really more than
I did from the adults in the audience.
But one of the things out of which I
got the most enjoyment and information
was the fact that when we were finished,
I was told that that day the students of
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Frostburg State College had taken a poll
among themselves with respect to that
which we were about to do in Annapolis
some months later, and that they had voted
two to one in favor of retaining the voting
age at 21.
And some of those youngsters at Frost-
burg explained to me why they did this.
They explained to me that they did not feel
that they were old enough to assume some
of the other responsibilities which were
concomitant with the right to vote.
They did not believe that they really
ought to be able to buy their own cars, to
contract their own debts, to accept the re-
sponsibilities of willing1 those assets which
they had. The boys among them did not
believe that they really ought to be able
to marry without their parents' consent.
When I found that out, on the basis of
a two-to-one vote among the people who
are represented in this group by a delegate
who was the president of the senior class
the preceding year and who is a member of
this Committee which reports to you today,
I could only reach the conclusion that per-
haps they were smarter than I was in
some respects, that they knew wherein lay
their responsibilities, that they knew that
which they felt they were entitled to tackle
themselves.
They saw no reason to change the con-
stitutional provision which we have his-
torically had, nor do I.
I respectfully suggest that the amend-
ment which has been offered by the ma-
jority in this thing is the attitude which
ought to be adopted in this Convention.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Koss.
DELEGATE KOSS: Mr. Chairman, J
yield three minutes to Delegate Pascal.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Pascal.
DELEGATE PASCAL: Mr. Chairman
and fellow delegates, as Mrs. Cardin has
indicated, this was an emotional issue in
Committee and will probably evolve into
one here on the floor.
We were all talking the same language,
but it had different meaning. Let us take
the impact that nineteen- and twenty-year-
olds would have on the political scene. My
figures show they would increase the elec-
torate by six percent and would represent
about 150,000 votes. Some of the surveys
taken by some local T.V. stations showed
that of 3,000 people polled, fifty-eight per-
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